Book Review: Mennonites in American Society, 1930-1970: Modernity and the Persistence of Religious Community

by Leonard Gross


Mennonites in American Society, 1930-1970: Modernity and the Persistence of Religious Community. By Paul Toews. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1996. (The Mennonite Experience in America, vol. 4.) Paper. $19.95 (Canada, $28.50).

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To chronicle for the very first time, and then to go on to interpret a variegated set of groups at odds with one another in culture and dress, in doctrine and theology, is no mean task. Yet such was the mandate Paul Toews accepted when he agreed to write a volume on the Mennonite experience in America from the 1920s and into the 1970s.

Attempting to do justice to the tensions inherent in such variegation, Toews developed a typology, describing and then comparing the "traditionalists" (the "Old Orders" et al.) with the "progressives" (General Conference Mennonites being the best example of this type) (p. 33). Toews finds common ground and vision among all Amish and Mennonite groups, centering in "the notion of the kingdom of God being incarnated in human forms in all ages of history," that it "should be recognizable and distinguishable from the kingdoms of this world," and that "the church, not secular structures, is God's main agent for bringing forth and demonstrating God's kingdom." Toews then contrasts the two: "What is different is how Old Orders and their modernizing cousins try to embody these ideas" (292).

Toews is both fair and sympathetic in his analysis and interpretation of all Mennonite groups (the Amish generally acknowledge their faith to be "Mennonite"). All groups end up having a valid raison d'être, although Toews does wrestle with and challenge some of them once in a while, as we shall see, using the Anabaptist Vision as something of a yardstick.

How does one write a first-time book based on millions of unpublished documents and hundreds of secondary sources? Paul Toews has done the possible, and has done it well, choosing the thematic route of history of ideas, rather than that of a more pure social-historical methodology. He justifies the inclusion of the many groups right at the outset, opening the first chapter with a description of the close cooperation among several larger Mennonite groups already at hand in 1930, the terminus a quo of the volume. The author also dips back into Anabaptist history, setting modern Mennonitism within its larger religious context, anticipating the story that unfolds in the 13 chapters in the volume.

To be noted in the structuring of the volume is a shift in thrust from a more obvious social-historical methodology, early on, to a purer history of ideas approach; from the study of a movement, congregationally and denominationally, to ideas and differing points of view (in later chapters) as held by a few, select leaders.

The volume follows a natural progression, from chapter to chapter, stepping from an analysis of the theological and ideological structures in the 1930s, to the successful attempts on the part of such leaders as Harold S. Bender (The Anabaptist Vision) to bring a high degree of resolution to the debate, in a manner that helped meet the new demands of the Second World War upon Mennonitism in general. The next set of chapters charts the transformations brought about by the Second World War, leading up to deeper ties and interrelationships among many Mennonite groups, suggesting the possibility of closer structural ties. A separate chapter on the Old Orders follows, which is justified thematically, in the light of an ever widening cultural-social gulf between the Old Orders and the more progressive groups, especially since the 1960s. A final chapter discusses the impact of the Vietnam War on Mennonites.

Toews closes his last chapter by noting the seminal and brilliant work of John H. Yoder, centering in his volume, The Politics of Jesus. Toews says, "If Yoder's book was appealing beyond Mennonite circles, it also offered a powerful reminder to Mennonites who were rapidly losing their distinct sociology. Like Hershberger and Bender before him, Yoder still offered Mennonites a middle ground. That ground lay between being a marginal people, existing only on society's fringes, and becoming merely a part of a modern society which was adept at undermining prophetic sects by folding them into the approved, established order. Messianic communities should and could be powerful instruments of witness. If they were, they would keep their distinct peoplehood" (335-36).

Toews' bias is that of a sympathetic interpreter, combined with the historian's perspective; the era under consideration is set within the larger Anabaptist-Mennonite context of the generations and centuries that preceded. In this regard, for example, Toews chronicles, in the thought and writings of a number of Mennonites from the 1930s and 1940s, major discrepancies between their supposed Mennonite theology, and the longer-standing Anabaptist-Mennonite historical tradition. In the author's words, "not only were Mennonites caught between conservatism and liberalism; even more, they had not articulated a theological system appropriate to their history and position in society. Protestant Fundamentalism and liberalism were both alien to them" (78).

Toews then goes on to chronicle how certain Mennonites dealt with Fundamentalism, especially from the 1920s through the 1940s or so, and how, slowly but surely, a new vision would take hold, through the efforts of C. Henry Smith, Harold S. Bender, Guy F. Hershberger, J. Winfield Fretz, John B. Toews and others.

This is a noble and brave book. The author discovers the underlying faith and love that permeates a people, allowing at the same time for keen imperfections to surface. Toews believes in the power of idea, in the genuineness and power of the Anabaptist Vision: "In the 1940s Mennonites' greatest intellectual achievement -- Harold Bender's 'Anabaptist Vision' -- was a response to an identity crisis. Bender had sought an intellectual and ancestral home for a people bewildered by rapid social change. ...Harold Bender's Anabaptist Vision ... was the crowning achievement of twentieth-century ideological reconstruction of Mennonite identity" (339, 341).

The volume ends on a note of hope, suggesting we're in on this Mennonite thing together, that for the post-1970s, it is largely up to us to determine how the story is to continue, and furthermore, that vision continues to play an important role in our denominational health. Toews sees two major types of Mennonites emerging during the half-century he was interpreting, beginning around 1930: the Old Order groups, continuing in large part their societal separation from the outside world, and the progressive Mennonites, working at "preserving community via new denominational structures, ideological formulas and ecumenical alliances." (342). Toews sees both strategies working, at least into the 1970s.

Critique. The reader may well wonder why the volume limits Mennonites geographically to the confines of the United States. The American (i.e., non-Canadian) perimeters were indeed set for the volume back in the early 1970s when the series was being conceived, in deference to a few Canadian scholars eager to write the Canadian side of the North American equation. On the one hand, this decision permitted a more natural correlation of the inner Mennonite community with the outer societal and political context, the results of which are especially significant during times of war. On the other hand, such imposed limits truncate the larger Mennonite reality of being a presence, separate from the state, a reality which knows no national borders, and where Mennonite conferences such as the Northwest Conference of the Mennonite Church find themselves existing on both sides of the border.

Worthy of note, given current discussions on the significance of differing church polities for the idea of merger, is the tension which often was at play between congregational authority and a more centralized, authoritative leadership, and the role institutionalism played in this regard. "How to structure both congregations and conferences," is how Toews asks the question. He answers it in part by quoting sociologist Paul Peachey, who maintained that Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists had "consistently thought in congregational terms," and that the modern building of central Mennonite institutions brought with it a loss of inner vitality (230-31).

Toews shows an unusually good understanding of key leaders such as Bender, Hershberger, and Orie O. Miller (individuals whom this reviewer knew personally), the assumption being that Toews did equally well in portraying General Conference Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren leaders, et al. Yet in way of further critique, more could have been said about the influence Robert Friedmann held upon Bender in the defining of the Anabaptist Vision.

Another problem has to do with the use of the word "district" for regional Mennonite conferences. Although the word district may be apropos for some other groups, it is not adequate in describing the Mennonite Church tradition. More also could have been said about the Hutterites; although there is some reason to view them in a different light than, say, the Amish, they too are part of the Mennonite World Conference tradition. A theme deserving of greater emphasis than given in the volume was that of the communal, house church movement of the Fifties. The photographs in the volume lack sparkle, although the binding and paper are good. And on page 319 and following, more could have been said about Hershberger's shift in the 1960s in his views concerning taking the message of peace and social justice to the corridors of Washington.

From the many volumes published each year, a few will emerge as classics. This magnum opus promises to become one such classic, with substance, carefully selected, written with intelligent respect and fairness for the whole spectrum of Mennonite groups, tied together with obvious vision. Toews possesses the amazing ability of bringing clarity to his work, in spite of the myriad facts. He is aware of, and does justice to the general contextual literature "out there," and not only to the Mennonite story, in the narrower sense.

With balance, trust and good will, Toew's completed "patchwork quilt" is believable; it impels the reader to recommit to the same vision of the human response of discipleship, fulfilled in a close interrelating community with an eye for love and peace -- our ongoing vision, now centuries in the making.


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Mennonite Historical Bulletin, April, 1997